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Community Safety and Security Act of 2018

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 7, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Criminal Justice

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of legislation introduced by my colleague, Congresswoman Karen Handel from Georgia, H.R. 6691, the Community Safety and Security Act.

This is an important piece of legislation for multiple reasons. First, passage of this legislation fulfills Congress' duty to fix a loophole in our Federal legal code that the Supreme Court has decided must be changed. Specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that our definition of ``crime of violence'' is unconstitutionally vague, applicable throughout U.S. Code. This means courts must decide on a case-by-case basis which crimes are of violence and which are not.

Unfortunately, this vagueness leads to inconsistencies. Individuals who commit crimes of sexual assault, kidnapping, assault on a police officer, and much more may be set free by the courts because of this vague phrase in our code.

With this legislation, we can ensure those committing these acts stay behind bars. And further, fixing this problem is exactly what Congress was designed to do, allowing those elected directly by the people to create and update the laws we live by, creating consistent and clear laws to uphold the rule of law.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this important legislation.

I thank my colleague from Georgia for sponsoring this legislation.

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